Dyan,
I used to turn weeds and leaves under in the garden every year with the small amount of compost I made. Now I mix compost and bagged potting soil to put in the hole as I plant. Kind of Pepper's method. Slowly but surely, since we only loosen the row we are planting now.
Pepper,
Nice tree peonies! Also a good color to lighten it up.
Will,
If they grow just fine then it's ok :o)
Ronna,
It's so tempting to buy plants right now isn't it?
I filled pots with potting soil and put water in the bottom of the tray. My bigger pots still haven't soaked up water to the top so I haven't done any sowing yet.
We got a tenth and a half of rain last night. Isn't that sad....
Have a busy day!
March 2015 Spring is here!
Well, today has been eventful already. My grandma's car broke down in town this morning. Luckily it was in town and just down the road from a friend's shop. He took a look at it and called a tow truck to get it to his shop. I went straight there from work and gave her a ride home. We know what the problem is, now he's hoping it will work with him and be fixable so we don't have to buy a new car. That's not in budget. lol
It's turned cold again, and I find myself worrying about my baby plants. :(
Oh, Pepper, I hope that works out well for you! There are few things more frustrating than car trouble.
On the bus & using the free wifi. Not so sad about the the weather since I'm still working on taxes. Once I finish, I'll have a different opinion.
Car problems can be a major headache. I hope it's not too costly Pepper. Road is a bit bumpy now, so I check back later.
Almost forgot. After the rain, a friend took this morning at the train station.
Pepper,
Prayers for your Grandma's truck. I sure hope it's not an expensive fix. She was so lucky to be so close!
Dyan,
I hope your baby plants are OK too.
Betty,
I too use bad weather to my advantage. I hope you are close to being done with taxes.
A crawdad!!
~ to Will and Ju.
We got groceries this morning. We used the heated seats :o)
I sowed the rest of the peppers and pineapple tomatillos. This year I'm trying Aunt Molly's ground cherries, used in salsa and other things. I received a free package of Chinese cabbage so I made three pots of those too.
I went out in the garage and put pots in order. I have small plastic pots that I numbered and they were a mess. I found each one, so nothing got lost.
The wind keeps picking up, but at least the sun was out. We get thru the weekend and it warms up again.
And I wave hi, Sally!
Well, the car is officially dead. It was the timing belt that went out and that affected the valves so we are getting together with some family members tomorrow to discuss some options with and see what we can do.
~ back to Will!
Now we need to hear from Ju!
Oh Pepper,
That is bad news. I hope there is a reasonable car out there for her.
My cousin posted an interesting thing about the fascia that holds our bodies together.
http://www.mindbodygreen.com/0-17936/understanding-fascia-what-it-is-why-you-should-care.html
Colder today than yesterday and I've found other things to do besides get on the treadmill. I lose and gain it back again. Sigh....
Have the best day you can. It's Friday, that's a good start!
HI......I am still around and about to be free! I get fired on April 16!!!
I see the spring fling is gearing up how exciting!
I am not about to try to catch up with all that is going on with you guys.....heavens it would take the rest of the year, you all are so busy.
Our master gardener group held a papercrete pot making class for the 4h kids. We ended up with alot of folks but we had so much fun. I like papercrete better than hypertuffa in that it is smoother and more polished looking and lighter. It dawned on me during the class you can't get parents involved in doing much but have their kids involved in it and they are all right there. It was great.
I have enjoyed doing taxes except we have had some amazing weather! I mostly worked 7 days a week really odd hours...didn't feel like 7 days. I signed up to work for corporate and a privately owned store so corporate thought the two days off I was off but I was at the privately owned store only two days a week. Worked out cause you rarely work 8 hours a day and at the old job I worked almost 12 hours a day so this was a walk in the park. But I am ready to stop. I will take classes online mostly to up my rating so I can do more complicated taxes. I have learned so much. Need to finish my taxes tomorrow tho!
Will be fun to have my life back !!!
Glad we didn't have any snow last night.
Oh Pepper, I am so sorry! I am thinking good thoughts for you all here, stay warm and think Spring. Dyan, I bet your plants perk up when the sun shines. Will, I am going to see if we can get a bat house together. Betty, you are still an inspiration to me. Billy, you sound like you are a busy Woman with your grandchildren. how fun!
now where is Ju? Hay Joyce and Pepper, I am coming up to KC area April 11th thru 12th.
I'll be floating around so when I get my schedule for that week I'll dmail you and see if we can manage to meet up.
We got a washer today. Found a good deal at a local store so that problem is taken care of. Now we just have to come up with the money for a decent car. We're gonna work on that tonight.
Happ finally managed to unbury herself!! LOL!!
Now I'm going to reveal to you where the craw dad was going & it wasn't to catch the train.
omgosh too funny! ( I havn't seen a crawdad in years)
Maybe it gets bugs that have recently washed into the storm-drain because of the rain! Anyway, it ought be ashamed of itself for not wearing a swimsuit!
Welcome back happ! You are the tax lady! An aunt retired from the irs after 30 years.
I remember toward the end she was always off work or on vacation, I think she got about 2 months a year vacation. Maybe I'll go to that hr block tax school next year, I got to wait and see if my paper route works out right now.
I have yet to install the bat house, it won't be long tho.
Happ!
You have been gone so long I forgot to wave at you!
Fired! Free! I am so happy for you!! It's good to get a job you like doing and those twelve hour days are awful.
It looks like a lot of fun and all ages were pretty intent on their pots, LOL!
Betty,
I had to laugh at the worm following the crawdad. I love it!
Will,
Can't wait to see the bat house up!
You OK Ju?
It was icy cold yesterday and will be today too, then our weather turns for the better. No rain yet and I'm counting on April showers. DH did get the pitcher pump on so the frost is all out of the ground now. I don't mind another day in the house. He turned some of the garden dirt and it is too wet to even work out there.
Have a good day!
The taxlady gets fired the day after april 15th, what a shame! Nobody really cares for tax time but I never seem to have much income so I really don't care, my refund is always pretty small. A friend of mine is a seasonal worker at the irs and she does unemployment in the off-season. Okay happ, now that you came back you can't leave you know! Yes, where is that ju?!
I plan to get that old bat house up soon, bp! As soon as I fashion a roof for it, up it goes! I changed my mind on the previous roof I had planned for it. I need to come up with some kind of thick rubber sheet that I can just glue on. I don't want to take a chance on penetrating the roost chamber with screws and possibly causing a water leak that might discourage bat use later.
Boy, it has been cold here at nite, even snowing briefly at times. Of course, the snow melts fast because it's not freezing, just the upper thirties I believe. Even now it's only 41°. - http://www.kshb.com/weather
They are cutting down the maple tree(s) next door. The reason I say trees is it's an odd planting that looks like one tree but the Einstein (or Einsteins) that planted it many years ago thot they'd make a "multi-trunked" Silver Maple tree (not possible). Actually, all it is, is 3 maple trees planted ridiculously and dangerously close to each other. They all have a hideous lean, which makes a bad tree even worse.
But the neighbor that's there now is a nice guy and he had plans to cut it down. I think me telling him that tree did over $11,000 in damage to my friend's car in 2013 may have hastened his decision. When it fell apart the first time and did the damage the house was vacant. Now, there's someone living there and I'm pretty sure he knows he'd be on the hook if it did it again.
Just hearing the chainsaws now and it hitting the ground is kinda comical. This is the result of a terrible and ill-conceived planting in the 60's or 70's, talk about b-hole landscaping. Believe me, I have my camera at the ready. We have a car parked in the driveway in the very spot where big boy came down 2 Mays ago. I'll post some photos of the monstrousity, getting the works now. The 3rd photo is today. the first 2 are back then. That second pic is just hideous, it shows the branch that came down exactly on the top of my friend's all-glass-top newer sports car, that day. It took me 2 hours just to vacuum the broken glass. The fourth photo kinda gives you an idea of all the broken glass that I vacuumed up. Do you see that limb in the backseat in that photo? It would have skewered anybody sitting there as it ended up about 2 inches from the bottom of the seat. The last photo is the branch laying nicely across the top of my friend's busted car, (I had cut the ends of the branches off with my chainsaw). It was a direct hit, it wasn't just a glancing blow of a branch. The big branch and branches went about 60 feet from the nextdoor treetop and came to rest on top of the car, unfortunately.
A word of advice, if you have a weedy, weak, precarious tree, cut it down now..lol
This message was edited Mar 28, 2015 4:50 PM
Will,
The smaller the refund means more of YOUR money went in YOUR pocket instead of the using it for themselves.
I wonder what you could find that isn't too pricy for the roof? If you had a sheet of rubber, you could always make more houses.
I have a silver maple and I would plant ANYTHING else! Their roots are so shallow. I hope he replaces it with a nice shade tree.
Wow! Good documentation. Look at the lichen on the bark! No big tree should be multi- trunked. It just weakens it and leaves a crotch for water to stand in. Good thing it was safety glass. What a mess.
It's finally raining and I hope we at least get a tenth out of it.
Have a restful Sunday!
Hi all! I have an idea, and I'd like some feed back on it. Is this totally crazy?
My gardens are set so that they run the length of my house (nothing unique about that), and I planted things about 6 inches away from the house. The point was to have a strip of mulch running between the house and any growth. It's to help discourage spiders from coming in, and I think it makes things look a tad neater.
My son works at Lowes and last year he kept nagging me about putting down this stuff to keep weeds from growing. It's like a plastic sheet. Honestly, I thought the idea was silly at the time. And I wasn't about to lay down plastic, then cut holes where I wanted to plant things. But now I've been thinking......
I don't want to use that on my entire garden. Partly because now I'd have to dig up plants and re-plant them, and partly because I like the idea of seeing my plants spread out with new, baby plants. BUT what if I put down a strip along that 6" area along the house, then covered it with mulch? Would that be pointless and a waste of effort? Or is it something other gardeners do, and I'm only now catching up with the idea?
I also read something about hand painting Roundup (the weed killer) on weeds, but doesn't it still get into the soil and migrate to the plants that I'd want to keep??
Round does not go into the soil. It will stay where paint it.
Farmers used a wiper years ago on corn fields. A bar soaked with Round up held just above the corn. Any weed sticking up would get zapped.
Dyan, use newspaper instead of plastic. It will decompose instead of degrading. You will need to replace it only once a year if you put it down thick. Works just as well as plastic and has added benefit of helping the soil.
I have done both methods, I like the news paper method the best.
What do you do? Put the paper down, then mulch over it? I read about it on another site, and they seemed to indicate that I should put paper down, wet the paper and wait for it to degrade before putting mulch on top. That seemed visually unappealing since this is going to be right in front of my house.
The way I did mine was paper, wet, a layer of soil, wet, another layer of paper, wet, fine mulch, wet more soil, and plant and then mulch. You then take a sharp long knife and cut your planting holes, fill with potting soil and plant your plants and mulch again and water thoroughly. The pastic is good, but I use black ground cover plastic. It tends to wrinkle, and become uncovered and you have to add more soil.
Wow, good for you! That is a ton of work.
Not really.. kinda a lasagna bed. It does break down and turn to rich soil after a couple years, I like the paper method much better than fighting with plastic. I did not wait for any amount of time when Planting my two flower beds with that method.
That method is definitely one of the best ways to go.
Ahhhh What a difference a day makes! And I'm a happy, happy camper!
So I have these three Russian Sage plants that I've been watching and hoping for signs of life, and I'm fairly sure that I've over pruned them. So I was fearing that my lack of experience had just killed them, but someone pointed out that Russian Sage is pretty hard to kill and that I shouldn't give up just yet. AND......... low and behold, over the weekend I saw new growth on two of them. And I got really excited!
I also decided to take advantage of some of the membership benefits to this site and start a blog. It's more out of a desire to journal my garden efforts this year. With an eye to starting the blog, I went out yesterday and snapped pictures of all my plants. Well, at least, all of them that are showing life. So here are the two Russian Sages that had new growth yesterday. Mind you, I was THRILLED with this result.
But when I came home today, I stopped to say 'hello' to my plants and ........ oh my goodness. The two Russian Sage plants that had a little life yesterday had suddenly exploded with new growth! AND while I didn't take a picture of the third plant, I think it might also have new growth. I'll have to watch it for a couple of days to be sure, but I think that I saw something hopeful tonight. Anyway, as I said, the first two pictures are from yesterday. The second two are the same plants today. LOOKIE AT ALL THE NEW GREEN STUFF!
I'm starting to see a lot of life in my garden now also. More shrubs than plants but the garden that usually explodes first got a burn job a week or so ago so that set some things back. Be worth it down the road. lol
Glad about your Russian sage Dyan. I took pics outside today too. I may get them posted by Thursday. The cherry bushes were covered with honey bees. I love my little pollinators! Debra I do something similar using shredded junk mail; instead of newspaper because it's more plentiful. Then I layer with composted manure, coffee grounds, banana peels, eggshells, tea leaves, & leaves, etc...
My gr-daughter Chloe's teacher has introduced their 4th grade class to vermiculture. Each student is growing a cucumber & a zucchini plant. One is soil from the vermiculture & one using regular soil to see which grows a healthy plant. I'm going on the class field trip to the science center on April 22 "Earth Day", so maybe I'll get to see the plants. I met the worms already. Chloe says I'll get her plants.
how exciting to see something grow you feared was gone.. *HAPPY* for you ;)
Betty, I do that too, since the garden is right out back door, we dump all composting things and recycle dish tub water out to the trees and shrubs all winter, and then turn it in and add more soil from deep within the compost pile.
I'm already diggin dandys out of the flower beds way out back..kinda worried about my crepe myrtle. I wish I had the one I grew up with. it was huge.
Wish it would rain..
Dyan,
Russian sage is not hard to kill. I never prune mine, but they limp along every year. I must have poor version. My SIL has a beautiful specimen.
Oh green is so exciting!!
Betty,
That is so cool and Chloe is contributing to the garden too! I'm excited to see the results myself :o)
Debra,
The little rain we had still made the dirt perfect for working in. It's damp, but I can crumble it.
Yesterday DH helped me dig the two rhubarb plants and I bagged a few small starts for my cousin.
I had to move winter onions so I could lower the black edging that popped up.
I also moved wild Siberian iris and put them elsewhere because I want the landscape blocks they were planted along, raised. A whole inch, but it will make that much difference because the bed is sloped.
DH had to help his friend move machinery out and load it to be sold.
I will be working again today! And I did have suntan lotion on ears and all :o)
Have a the same beautiful day!
Debra, we are definitely kindred spirits. ; )
~ to Betty!
I can't remember if I already posted this, but in early March, when we had our nice week, I had bees in the compost pile. All they wanted were the dry coffee grounds.
Hit a stupid button and lost my whole post. One by the space button got hit by my pinkie. lol
Anyways, long story short. Finished digging out bed and got good dirt in. Still need more but a good start on it. My tree peonies arrived yesterday so hopefully I make it back to grandma's Wed after work and before the rain to get more dirt so I can plant the peonies.
Billy, that sounds very interesting. I wonder if they got a caffeine buzz?
Pepper, I love peonies too.
I guess many of you spent today in the garden.
Another busy day yesterday. I had to move a few more plants and DH started on moving the landscaping blocks. He only moved them a block size over, but how much bigger the rhubarb bed is now! I turned the compost pile over and buried the leaves I raked so they don't blow away. Sounds like I would lose them in today's winds.
I Preened and mulched the bed on the back of the garage after I moved a fern and variegated Soloman's seal there with the two hostas already in place. Luckily I had mulch from last year.
Have a good day all!
On the commuter train heading across the "Big Muddy" & enjoying this early Spring morning. Don't be fooled today! lol
It was a busy, busy day at work today. Spring fever is in full swing here.
Finally got my peonies planted today. Just planted them and didn't bother with water since we will get a ton of rain tonight and tomorrow. lol. The bed still needs dirt but I figured being in their spots is a good start.
We are at the new April 2015 thread. Please join us.
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1389871/
The March 2015 thread is closed.